Social media has completely changed the game of communication. There are so many different channels and it can get pretty confusing. While some people might be intimidated by this new way of communicating, I love it!

Here’s three reasons why:

1. Meet New People! You can “meet” and connect with people you would never know otherwise. For example, when doing some research for an exit campaign project for my recent internship, I questioned the twitterverse (twitter universe, for you un-techy folk) on best practices. Surprisingly, I got a great response back from David Micallef, head of digital media at Fenton Communications in Australia, who then emailed me a whole rundown on how to effectively close a program and highlight all of its accomplishments. What other way could I have gotten advice from AUSTRALIA?! I mean, seriously, social media rocks.
2. Win Free Stuff! In an effort to drive traffic to a site or store, many companies are hosting Facebook and Twitter “contests”. Tweet about this, like the page or post about the company to your blog and you’re entered to win a prize. My friend Cindy (who I met through Twitter) is the queen of winning online contests for free stuff. She got me in the habit of entering contests and I finally won one for the first time last week! Hemming Plaza Jewelers gave me free tickets to a pre-season Jaguars game just for “liking” their page.
   

   Free Jags Tickets!

   I tried to convince the owner to let me wear some jewelry to the game in exchange for tweets, but he thought that season ticket seats were good enough.

   3. Learn! Just about every time I have a question that I don’t feel like Googling, I ask Twitter/Facebook/Foursquare. My friend Stacey always asks a question when she checks in somewhere on Foursquare and never ceases to get interesting responses. From what the best dish is or what time of day to avoid that particular venue, she always learns something new. I also follow reporters and bloggers in fields I find interesting; sports, travel, and fashion, not just public relations and marketing. My timeline is full of people posting intriguing articles, motivational quotes or just interesting facts.

   Why do you love social media?